


The Talk (no, not that one)

by Corvid_Knight



Series: Earth C Shenanigans [14]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Coming Out, Earth C, M/M, Post-Sburb, Trans dirk, family stuff, hmmm, i am so bad at writing characters coming out as gay help, positive stuffs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-10
Updated: 2018-06-10
Packaged: 2019-05-20 12:42:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14894844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corvid_Knight/pseuds/Corvid_Knight
Summary: Dirk meets John's dad for the first time, and both the boys do some explaining.Sequel toComing Home.





	The Talk (no, not that one)

The phone rings, and even before you're awake you instinctively grab for a katana. In your defense, the ringtone's currently set to something Dave picked—him and Roxy both shouting your name as loud as they could, and it's really fucking disconcerting when you're barely awake.

The katana isn't lying on the floor by the bed, of course. You don't keep it there when your boyfriends are here, which is most of the time. Currently, it's just John; Jake's off wrangling the hybrid lusii that Tavros and Jane have been trying to breed.

Hm. John actually isn't here. As in, not in bed with you. Which isn't exactly rare—him leaving in the middle of the night a tell for when his depression's ramping up, actually; you kind of hate that you slept through him getting up and out of bed—but still comes as an uncomfortable surprise.

He's probably on the roof. You should go check on him.

Wait. The phone.

You roll over—almost off the bed—and grab it, glancing at the caller ID and seeing that it's Jade as you hit the "accept call" button. "Yo."

" _Hi, Dirk. John's over here, so don't panic when you can't find him._ "

You probably would have done just that. "Me? Panic? Never. What's he doing over there, anyway?"

" _Being the welcoming committee._ "

"...now?" Okay, your brain is refusing to come up with any logical explanation for current events.

Fact A: John doesn't do the whole welcoming committee thing. You don't blame him; you're not all that good at explaining what Earth C is to people who died in one of the four (five? No, no one's ever showed up from Caliborn's) sessions of the universe-destroying (creating) game. It's usually left to Roxy or Dave and Karkat or someone who has some social ability to tell them that they've been given a second chance.

Fact B: for some reason, people showing up in the middle of the night (well, four-thirty in the morning) is pretty damn rare.

Hm. Wait, you know what the right question is. "Who?"

" _It's his dad. That's why I thought I should call you—he's going to be here for a while, catching up and stuff. Plus I think they might both end up asleep; Mr. Egbert's tired and John looks like he hasn't slept at all for a while—_ "

"Yeah. He's been having issues again." His dad. Holy shit.

Your brain plays a flash of memory for you—one of the times John woke up from a dream, choking out broken sobs and curling into your arms as you tried to comfort him. Sobbing for his father, because he just relived the man's death.

And now his dad's alive again.

"You think he's going to sleep?"

" _Mhm! And I think they_ should _sleep, Dirk, they really need it—_ "

"No, you're totally right, I just—" Jesus fuck you're so fucking happy for John right now, even if there's almost no chance Jade can tell by your voice. You are not good at emoting. "You wanted me to come over and help you with shit at some point, right?"

" _Well yeah, gardening! But you have to wait until the sun actually comes up, Dirk. You can't mow in the dark._ "

Oh, yeah. Linear time is still a thing. "I knew that. What, two hours? Three? I know you get up and ready early."

" _And_ I _know that Striders sleep as long as they can, when they do sleep, so..._ "

"Don't attack me like this. Anyway, three hours. Fair enough?"

" _Sure, but you could come over earlier and hang out with me, you know. I'm not going back to sleep._ "

"Eh, I have things to do."

" _Hmmm. How many of those things are 'take a weirdly long shower '?_ "

Damn. "No comment."

" _You big dork, you're supposed to do that after the gardening, not before. See you later!_ "

"Yeah, definitely. Bye, Jade."

You set the phone down as she ends the call, and sit for another second before you get up to go find suitable clothes for helping Jade out with some gardening.

* * *

Five hours later you're lying on freshly-cut grass and listening to yourself make lowkey dying noises as you blink up at the sky. There's grass clippings stuck to your shades. This is not a welcome development, nor an entirely unexpected one.

Your ears may be ringing a little.

You are going to lay here for a couple hours, you think. Well, you think that until John leans over you, with the kind of grin on his face that's been there for a pretty good stretch of time and isn't going anywhere any time soon.

"My dad's here," he tells you, and settles down to straddle you, not on your chest but on your stomach and keeping his weight on the ground instead of your body. You're thankful for that; breathing is hard. "Wait, did you use the weedeater to do all this?"

The words _all this_ are accompanied by a sweeping arm gesture, indicating the couple hundred square feet of grass that you've murdered. It looks pretty good, you think.

"Jade told me, and yes, I did." You smile up at John and fumble around until you get ahold of his hands, lacing your fingers with his. "I'd ask if you were happy you found him, but that's a stupid question, right?"

"Very. You know Jade has a lawnmower, right?" The smile is, for the moment, gone, because John is in full Scolding His Idiot Boyfriend mode. "Maybe _two_ mowers. I really think she has two, Dirk. One you push around and one you can ride on."

"Mhm."

"And you used..."

"A weedeater."

"Okay... _why_?"

It's difficult to shrug when you're laying flat on your back. "I like it."

"You're an idiot."

"Yeah."

"You're _my_ idiot."

" _Fuck_ yeah."

"If you're wearing a binder right now, I'm going to kick your ass."

"Nope. Sports bra. Does this mean I get the opposite of an ass kicking?"

Instead of answering, John grins and leans down to kiss you, which answers the question in the most affirmative manner possible. Fuck yes.

A minute later he pulls back, and the look on his face is serious and a little nervous. "Want to meet my dad?"

"Are you scared I'm going to say no, or that I'm going to say yes?" You have to ask that. You can't tell just by looking at his face, and you want to do what he wants you to do. If he's not ready to introduce you to his dad, you can live with that.

But he just shrugs. "Neither. Just, my dad meeting you, I guess. Not because it's _you,_ because of the whole. This." And he tugs his left hand free of yours, raises it and gives his hand a little shake to emphasize the multicolored bracelets there. Which immediately makes you think of the one you have, matching in spirit if not in color. "Is it weird that I'm scared to talk to him about it?"

"Babe, please think about who you're asking that question of."

"Okay, fair point, you wouldn't know normal if it punched you in the face."

"...are you going to let me up so we can go talk to him, then?"

And John stifles a laugh and shifts his weight off your stomach, reaching down to pull you to your feet again.

* * *

John's dad is sitting at the kitchen table, frowning in concentration as he scrolls through a tablet. Probably one with the whole welcoming-packet on it; Nepeta and Rose and some of the others spent a couple weeks compiling everything they could think of about the games into one database, put it where it could be given to any of the newcomers who wanted more info.

The man looks up and smiles when John opens the door, eyes fixing on his son for a long moment before he looks at you at all. "This is one of your friends, isn't it? David?"

"Oh, close. Dirk. Dave's my brother." Well, kind of. He can always look up the two of you on that database and struggle through Jade and Roxy's lengthy explanation on ectobiology. You'll leave the "friend" thing for John to correct, if he wants to. "I'm guessing at least two people already said this, but welcome to Earth C."

"Three people, but you make a very good guess." Mr. Egbert nods, setting the tablet down as John pulls you to sit down in one of the chairs. He doesn't let go of your hand even as he takes a seat as well; you wonder if his dad notices, and what he thinks. "You seem a bit younger than I thought David's brother would be, though."

"Uh..." Hmm. You're very bad at this. "Different brother, kind of. I mean genetically? No. Same guy. Mentally, morally, physically? Yes, different bro. I'm the same age as John, for one thing; I'm not a fuckin' sack of scummy shit, for another, so—"

John squeezes your hand before you can get off on the nervous ramble your mind's trying to send you on, thank god. Why the fuck are you even nervous, anyway?

"Sorry," you murmur to him.

"Hey, you're fine." Your boyfriend takes a deep breath and lets go of your hand, working his rubber bracelets off and setting them on the table in a neat row. "Okay, um. Dad?"

"Yes, son?"

"You know what the rainbow means, right? Like, when it's a flag. The specific rainbow flag. Like this." He picks up the first bracelet, the obvious gay pride one, holding it out to his dad with one hand as he finds your hand again with the other. When he gets a nod but no verbal response, he keeps talking. "I mean yeah, you know, I knew what it meant when I was thirteen even if all I ever did was laugh at stuff for being gay, which is kind of funny now. Because. Dirk, help me out here."

Oh. Okay.

"He's gay," you say, very calmly since John is currently anything but calm. You raise your hand to show the bracelets on your own wrist. "I mean, _I'm_ gay. He's bi. This one." You pick up the blue-purple-pink bracelet, showing it to Mr. Egbert.

"He's my boyfriend," John tells him, and then goes bright red and leans against you. "I mean—ugh. This is a hell of a lot harder than I thought it'd be."

"Hey, I'm pretty sure you're doing fine," you tell him, and let go of his hand so you can wrap that arm around his shoulders instead, looking back over at Mr. Egbert. "You should maybe say something now."

The man considers that for a moment, then nods. "John, you seem to have picked an exceptionally caring young man. That's a good trait in a partner."

John processes that for a second, then suddenly relaxes, laughter bubbling up out of him. It's not that there's anything funny, you know; he's releasing stress, all the fear that his dad was going to be pissed about this. "Dirk's got a lot of good traits, I promise."

"John, when you say it like that it sounds like you're covering something up," you point out.

"Not to Dad."

"Fair enough."

Mr. Egbert clears his throat, reaching across the table to poke at the remaining bracelets. "Would these mean something too, then?"

"Oh!" John nods, slipping on the gay and bi ones and selecting one of the others. "This one means demiromantic—like, I don't do the whole liking people thing at all unless I'm really close to them already." That one goes on his wrist too. "This one is for Dirk's aspect, pinks for Heart."

"I have blues for Breath," you point out, extending your arm to show your bracelets. Mr. Egbert examines them for a moment, then nods, tapping each in turn.

"Gay, blue for my son, erm—"

"Polyamorous," you supply. "I have another boyfriend."

"Who I'm okay with," John chimes in.

"Oh. Interesting." John's dad touches the red bracelet. "This?"

"It's, uh." That's Hal's bracelet. "It's a reminder of this one time I fucked up. Not to do that shit again."

"Ah. This one?"

That's the last bracelet you're wearing, pink and blue and white. "Trans."

"I'm sorry?"

Okay, so he hasn't heard that term. You open your mouth to start explaining—and John jumps in instead.

"Dirk's transgender." Damn, he's squeezing your hand even tighter than before now. " _Rose_ actually had to tell me what it meant, because I was kind of an idiot I guess—"

"Nope," you tell him under your breath.

"—was too, shut up—but like, when he was born—uh, created—ectocombined—"

Okay, he's floundering. You reach over and put your free hand over John's mouth, and say bluntly, "The term he's looking for is 'assigned female at birth.' And then, like, proved wrong about eight years later. You can probably look it up, because he's shit at explaining and I'm shit at talking to people without getting off on a tangent in general."

Mr. Egbert nods and reaches for the tablet. Under your hand, John says something that's either "you're not shit" or "let me go."

You do the latter, and he makes a face at you before looking over at his dad. Who's still reading, with an amazingly intent expression on his face.

Finally, though, he sets the tablet down again, getting to his feet. John pulls away from you a bit, pulling you up as well, although that means you just end up standing there awkwardly for a second.

Only a second, though, because Mr. Egbert wraps one arm around John and takes your arm with the other and okay, fuck, you weren't expecting a hug here. Not for you, at least, or not from John's dad. Well, John's dad and John at the same time, because John's got his arms around you and his dad both, pressing his face against your shoulder and making conflicted noises that kind of sound like sobs but still seem happy.

Just to make sure, you gingerly reach for your Heart powers, and let them go almost immediately.

Yeah.

Yeah, he's happy. He's okay.

You can calm down and relax now.


End file.
